Andrea Di Robilant

A rather pleasant, romance-novel sort of story – except it’s true. While researching family papers, author Andrea di Robilant found a box of letters belonging to his great**4 grandmother, Lucia Mocenigo. There were probably thousands of men and women of Lucia’s time that had more interesting life stories, but hers got recorded – born in a patrician but impoverished Venetian family; married at 16 to the scion of an equally patrician but considerably less impoverished Venetian family. show more Miscarriages and death of a child; tenderness and conflict with her husband; political difficulties as Venice is torn apart between Austria and France; an illicit love affair and reconciliation with her husband; being what was essentially a single mom; deaths in the family; and eventually ending up as Byron’s landlady. The charm is that the politics and turmoil are interspersed with talk about dresses for court, gardening plans, and a recipe for chocolate dessert cakes. Light reading but engaging and very well done; I’ll have to check out di Robilant’s other book about Venice. show less

I was bored to tears by this one. It’s the nonfiction account of a love affair that took place in the 18th century in Venice. The author wrote the book after his father found a collection of letters between their ancestor, a Venetian nobleman, and a young woman. It started out strong and quickly pulled me in, but soon the story was bogged down with a nonstop back and forth.

The melodrama between the lovers, the restraints of their society and their different social classes made the whole show more thing impossible. I felt like the book could have been much shorter, but the author wanted to include every scrap of correspondence he had between the two.

BOTTOM LINE: The story is interesting because it’s nonfiction, but it should have been much shorter. What should be a fast-paced love story quickly became a tedious tug-of-war. show less

In 1550, when most of the world was terra incognita and knowledge from explorers was top secret, one man dared to publish revelatory books drawing from classified material and reports, including up-to-date maps. He published it in his language, Italian, so it was accessible.

The project was the culmination of Giovambattista Ramusio’s life work building a private library of “official documents, top-secret reports, private letters, and a vast array of travel narratives both in manuscript show more and in printed form.”

It was a time of book banning, and the book’s contents were so inflammatory, the publisher worried that the Inquisition would take him to task. Some of the explorers were impressed by ‘heathen’ cultures, or at least were not dismissive.

Other narratives told of the European explorer’s violence and treachery against the indigenous populations they encountered.

The books became best sellers, in print for a hundred years.

These books shared the world, its geography and people, for all to read. Explorers worked for a specific rulers who financed their journeys, then held confidential the knowledge gained. For this information was vital to trade interests.

Ramusio had a long career in Venetian government. At retirement, instead of merely enjoying his farm and time with his son, he decided to compile all his sources into books, . It was like putting together “the pieces of a grand puzzle,” di Robilant writes. Ramusio literally worked himself to death on the project.

Ramusio’s story is fascinating in itself. He was friends with influential book publishers, scholars, scientists, and the man who ran a public library of rare books. His position in the Senate allowed him access to inside information.

This Earthly Globe is more than a biography, it is also a 16th c travelogue taking readers on the journeys of discovery. I was fascinated by early explorers as a girl and relished these sections.

There is so much in this book! Early publishing, Venetian, European, and world politics, the impact of new trade sources, how Europeans experienced and interacted with foreign cultures, and how exploration shifted our understanding of world geography. It is wonderful to study Ramusio’s included maps. Just a delightful and informative read.

Thanks to the publisher for a free book. show less

What an unexpected gem of a book! Based on the correspondence of the two lovers, it tells the sorry of a 17th century romance between a venetian patrician and his lover, high class, but not marriageable by the arcane rules of Venice at thetime. It is written by a direct descendant of the male "lead" who wonderfully manages to stay out of sight, to faithfully document the life and love affair of the protagonists with embellishing the tale, and still produce a riveting and fascinating story. show more The only licence taken is to render the translations of the letters in current colloquial English.
In his hands the love affair becomes timeless, and the characters so vibrant and alive. This is truly a magical achievement. Read March 2013. show less